Our Wedding {6 Months On}

Six months ago today, after 12 years of being together, we became husband and wife!

I didn't really write much about the build up to our wedding day, it sort of took over my entire existence for a few months, and it left very little space for anything else. Now though, I realise I am referring to our wedding a fair bit and haven't ever shared any of it here, so our six month anniversary seems the perfect time to do so!

All in all, with our professional images and some from our (very talented!) family and friends, we ended up with around 1000 photos, so picking just a handful to share here has been near on impossible, I love them all so much! Also, I don't want to share too many as I'm still hoping to send them off to a wedding magazine - I'm really proud of what we achieved, and want to show it off to as many people as I can! I may post more about the details of the day at a later date, but for now I've kept this very restrained...I could honestly go on forever!

We spent the night before our wedding day in the accommodation at Southwood Hall, which we chose for both our ceremony and reception. I was lovely having everyone together to celebrate and get ready the night before, and this also meant we could set the barn up so there was nothing to worry about in the morning!

Southwood Hall has three accommodation options. I spent the night with my three bridesmaids in one of the houses (the one with the hot tub of course!) and D, his family and the rest of our family and friends spent the night in the other, so we were able to get ready without accidentally bumping into each other!

One of my favourite moments from the morning was my Dad's secret tattoo reveal! My Dad hasn't ever liked tattoos, and wasn't especially impressed when I got my first, but a few weeks before the wedding he announced he was going to get one in honour of our wedding day! Right up until the moment he revealed it I wasn't sure he'd really done it, but low and behold, it's there! As I hugged him, 'My Girl' started playing and I suddenly realised what a massive thing it was, and how much faith he must have in our relationship to get our wedding date tattooed on him forever...cue tears!

Another moment I'll remember forever is when out wonderful florist arrived! That was the moment, after three years of waiting for it to happen, that I finally felt like it was my wedding day! The long box of flowers packed in tissue paper just like they are in the films made it all feel real!

I didn't feel anything but excited all morning! I wasn't at all nervous or stressed, just had a lovely time getting ready, dancing and being silly, and everyone who was there with us, our photographer, videographer, makeup artist, hairdresser all felt like friends joining in!

We got married at 12pm, and although I was ready to go at 11.50am, somehow I still ended up walked down the aisle late, and only just got the the front in time before the music ended! I walked down to The Portuguese Love Theme from Love Actually, and my Dad and I walked up the steps of the rotunda we got married under seconds before the end!

The ceremony itself was perfect, and during some of it I actually forgot there was anyone else watching! We had written our own vows, and decided we would each have the same number of lines, the first would be "I give you this ring" and the last would be "Always", and even though neither of us had any idea what the other had written, they were so similar and went so well together people thought we must have done them together! It was a bit overwhelming to be announced as Husband and Wife, and we both got a bit giggly and overexcited when we sat to sign the register. We'd picked songs to have playing while we signed, and it's funny how even though they meant a lot to us anyway, they somehow mean infinitely more now! We had 'Still Into You', by Paramore (the words are us to a tee!) 'The Luckiest', by Ben Folds (which was a contender for our first dance many years ago!) and 'When I Grow Up' from the Matilda Musical (because, we really did grow up together, and we also listened to it at full blast on the drive home from Southwood Hall the first time we went to look at it as a venue!) It meant a lot to me that both my Grandad's were able to be our witnesses and sign the register too.

To make the slight hysteria at this point worse, we had to sign with a fountain pen - no mean feat for two lefties!

After the ceremony, we pretty much spent the entire day eating! People had said to us that we would hardly see each other and to remember to make time to talk to one another, but we seemed to spend most of the day together! We hated the idea of canapés, so we had a 'Mediterranean Grazing Table' (fancy!) and rather than serving Pimms and Prosecco (snore!) we had a mixture of drinks in an ice filled trough and people helped themselves. Including me. To a bottle of cider. Classy!

I'm known for being a bit of a poser, so it was only natural that I'd love having our portraits done! While we were wandering about with our photographer, he said they were looking good, but I didn't quite imagine how good they'd be! I love that they've really captured us, the serious, and the utterly daft!

We wanted an informal feel for the meal too, so went for a buffet style affair (joints of meat, tart, potatoes, coleslaw, salad, bread...that sort of thing!) and for pudding we each chose one and had guests pick which they would like! My choice of apple crumble beat D's pavlova by a mile (team crumble for the win became my email signature for a while!) We also did the speeches first so my Dad in particular could actually relax and enjoy his meal without feeling nervous about it!

It was lovely knowing we had decorated the barn, and even done most of the set up of the tables the night before. We named our tables after my favourite artists, and our 'centre pieces' (I use the term loosely) were a mixture of our favourite books, and some jars and bottles from some of our favourite things. I made all the napkins which were tied with twine and had little sprigs of dried lavender tucked into them, and our friend wrote all the place cards. We had wooden hearts made with 'Best Day Ever' and 'Mr and Mrs Nickerson-Smith' on them, and also wooden cut outs of each table name. I made all the gold glitter pom poms, and we strung them up with a mixture of white, coral and yellow lanterns with trailing ribbons to match my bouquet. The pink runner between me and D was strung with vintage playing cards that spelled out "After All This Time - Always" (any Harry Potter fan will know why, and it's also a line from the Paramore song we signed the register to!) We had a slideshow of images from our lives together so far, and also pictures of us growing up which people seemed to love, and we found this a really good time to go round and make sure we has spoken to everyone properly!

After the meal, we just carried on eating! We had hundreds of macarons and salted caramel brownies made, and our guests went back outside to enjoy them with a cup of tea. After the evening guests had arrived, we also served our wedding cake which my sister (and maid of honour) made for us! Neither of us are really fussed about cake, and an iced cake just wouldn't have looked right, so she made us a giant victoria sponge (which I later learned almost fell over before we cut it!)

Apart from the ceremony, our favourite part of the day was our first dance. We danced, school disco style, to 'Not While I'm Around' by Jamie Cullum. We'd known this was going to be the song we danced to for years, longer than we'd been engaged, so finally doing it was a bit of an out of body experience, I just cried and laughed and we forgot we were being watched and we giggled at the fact that we'd really actually got married! After our dance as the newest married couple ended, D's brother and best man got up to invite my grandparents, the longest married couple, up to join us, and dance to their own first dance, 'Too Young' by Nat King Cole. At this point the emotion of the day was too much for everyone. My Grandad had been really ill, and nobody was really sure if he was going to make it to the wedding at all, never mind get up and dance, so when he took Nanny's hand and danced as easily as if he did it everyday, there was no stopping the tears we'd all been holding back all day. We swapped partners, me dancing with Grandad, D with my Mum, and Nanny with my Dad. The rest of the room joined us, so grateful that we were all together on such a special day.

Notice my friends' children dancing together too! Too cute!

After the first dance, it was time for even more food! We had wood fired pizzas, candy floss, dough nuts, popcorn and wedding cake! I unpinned my hair, bustled my dress and changed into a pair of Toms. Our band, who we've known and loved for years played two sets, and I think I spent the entire night dancing! We also had a photobooth, but not in the traditional sense, ours was in the back of a VW Camper!

It was all so perfect. Our slogan during the preparations had been 'Best Day Ever' and while it featured fairly heavily throughout the day (on banners and napkins, our cake topper and confetti) by the end of the day we really felt it had been. Your wedding day is supposed to fly past in the blink of an eye, but ours felt just right. We didn't rush, we spent time together and took everything in, and when we decided to leave at 11pm, I didn't feel gutted as I thought I would, just loved and grateful and elated! We ended the dancing with 'Dancing in the Moonlight' by Toploader (and old favourite which always makes me think of The Naked Chef) and our guests lined up outside the barn, each holding a lit candle to send us off. We walked down the middle, hand in hand, and when we reached the end I remember turning and yelling through my tears 'Thank you, we love you all so much!"